What’s with the U.S. and Israel?

Note: My weekend op-ed. Spiked.

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah*, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.
-Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 846 A.D. (Sayings of the Prophet collected by Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, 810-870) incorporated in the charter of Hamas.

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met twice on Tuesday in an atmosphere somewhat strained.

Contrary to customary protocol, reporters were not invited to see them shake hands and begin talks, and the White House did not issue a formal statement afterwards.

What’s going on?

Two weeks ago, during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel, a low-level bureaucracy announced the building of 1,600 new apartments in east Jerusalem. Though it doesn’t appear to be a deliberate provocation, Biden, a strong supporter of Israel, was miffed enough to show up late to a formal dinner. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later called Netanyahu to cuss him out for 45 minutes – and Madam Secretary is said to be a formidable cusser.

Netanyahu isn’t budging on the apartments.

Angry Palestinians have delayed new U.S.-sponsored peace talks over the issue. So what else is new? President Obama was described as “furious.”

So why aren’t the Israelis cooperating with us? Aren’t we their biggest supporters?

Short blunt answer, the Israelis aren’t cooperating because they get nothing from it – and they don’t trust us.

That Israel gets nothing from concessions is easy to show, if anyone has eyes to see. Harvard law professor Alan defender-of-the-rich-and-guilty Dershowitz, wrote a book, ‘Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge.’ You can dismiss it as special pleading if you like, but what you can’t ignore is the heart of it. It’s a table he created by listing all concessions made over 30 years to the Palestinians in one column, and in the other a list of terrorist acts and attempts.

In every single case, concessions have been followed by escalating terrorist acts. Simple, obvious, ignored. Like it says, terrorism works.

Why don’t the Israelis trust us?

Because they shouldn’t.

Biden is known as a strong supporter of Israel, which won’t matter unless and until the “vice” is removed from his title.

Secretary of State Clinton has been known to drop the “fucking Jew bastard!” bomb when angry and was a strong supporter of Palestinian statehood, until she publicly embraced and kissed Yassir Arafat’s wife Suha. After the subsequent backlash she discovered her “unrelenting support of Israel.”

There is no direct evidence President Obama is an anti-Semite, but he is undeniably comfortable with anti-Semitism. (Hint: 20 years in the front row of Rev. Wright’s church. Somebody forgot to tell him you’re supposed to stand up and walk out when a preacher starts racist rants from the pulpit.) And his reaction to Iran’s nuclear program has been tepid at best.

You may have missed all this but I assure you the Israelis haven’t.

But isn’t White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel a Modern Orthodox Jew who spends a lot of time in Israel?

I don’t know where Emanuel fits in all this, but he may share the same illusion most Americans cling to, that Israel’s enemies want peace.

Every American president for decades has known bringing permanent peace to the Middle East would assure his place in history. So far only Jimmy Carter has had any success, and only because Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat came to want peace more than he wanted his own life. Carter is now openly, bitterly anti-Semitic.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for another Sadat. More likely, there will be no peace until something indescribably horrible happens in the Middle East.

* “O Abdullah” probably doesn’t refer to someone named Abdullah, but to the meaning of the name, “slave of God.”